A Shiny Pokémon (Japanese: 光るポケモンShiny Pokémon), previously officially known as alternate coloration or rare coloration (Japanese: 色違いdifferently colored), and called Color Pokémon in Pokémon Stadium 2, is a specific Pokémon with different coloration to what is usual for its species. It is one of the many differences that a Pokémon can have within its species.

The term "Shiny Pokémon" was first created by fans to refer to the sparkling sound effect and animation made at the start of an encounter with one in the games. Eventually, this term fell into official usage in Generation IV, used on promotional material promoting Shiny event Pokémon. The term Shiny Pokémon was first used in-game in Pokémon Black and White in Nimbasa City.

Shiny Pokémon can differ in color from their normal counterparts very little or very much. Some Pokémon, such as Glaceon or Pichu, have a Shiny coloration only a few shades darker or lighter in color. However, many Pokémon have a spectacular difference between their normal and Shiny variations; even extremely common Pokémon like Caterpie show a dramatic difference. An evolutionary line is not necessarily guaranteed to have similar Shiny colorations even if their standard colorations are the same; both Ponyta and Rapidash have orange flames, but a Shiny Ponyta has blue flames while a Shiny Rapidash has gray flames (this is switched in Generation II). Sometimes, two Pokémon in an evolutionary line with different standard colorations will have the same Shiny coloration, as in the case of Skitty and Delcatty.

In the core series games

Shiny Pokémon were introduced in the Generation II games. When a Shiny Pokémon appears in the wild or from its Poké Ball, it is surrounded by a flash of stars or light, which is accompanied by a pinging sound effect.

Individual Pokémon cannot change their Shininess. A Shiny Pokémon will always be Shiny, and a regular Pokémon will never become Shiny. Upon evolution, a Pokémon retains its Shiny status; for example, a Shiny Charmander, if leveled up, will eventually become a Shiny Charmeleon and then a Shiny Charizard, while a regular Charmander will become a regular Charmeleon and then a regular Charizard.

An icon (seen in the table above) appears on the status screen of Shiny Pokémon in most games. In Generation II, this icon appears in the top-right corner of the screen, by the gender symbol, while in most other games, it appears in or near one of the corners of the Pokémon's image; however, Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald do not have any icon. In Generation III, the Pokémon's Pokédex number will be colored gold instead of white and the background of the Pokémon's image has a lighter shade; likewise, in Generation IV and V, the color of some elements of the status screen differ for Shiny Pokémon.

The table below summarizes the rates at which Shiny Pokémon can be found by the methods that will be detailed below. The Shiny Charm can directly add to the odds for most methods, with hidden Pokémon being affected uniquely.

Determining Shininess

In Generation II

In Generation II, being Shiny is determined by a Pokémon's IVs. If a Pokémon's Speed, Defense, and Special IVs are all 10, and its Attack IV is 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 or 15, it will be Shiny. Because of this, a Shiny Pokémon traded to a Generation I game and then traded back to Generation II will retain its Shininess, and a Pokémon obtained in Generation I whose IVs meet the requirements for Shininess will also become Shiny when traded to Generation II.

Since the HP IV is calculated from the other four IVs, a Shiny Pokémon's HP IV will always be either 0 or 8. Shiny Pokémon are generally above average in terms of IVs, but only slightly.

The probability of a Pokémon encountered in the wild or obtained as a gift, in-game trade, or event in Generation II having its IVs line up in the above manner is 1/8192 (assuming every IV combination has the same probability, which is usually the case).

The probability differs for bred Pokémon, as their IVs are partially influenced by their parents. Specifically, a parent passes its Special stat (plus or minus 8) and its Defense stat to its children that are the opposite gender from it. (If Ditto is one of the parents, it is always the one that passes these stats.) This means that if a Shiny parent passes its IVs to a child, the child's inherited Defense IV will always be 10, its inherited Special IV will have a 1/2 chance of being 10, its randomly generated Attack IV will have a 1/2 chance of being an appropriate value, and its randomly generated Speed IV will have 1/16 chance of being 10. This results in a 1/64 chance that such a child will be Shiny. These breeding mechanics also mean that if a child inherits its IVs from a Pokémon that does not have a Defense IV of 10 and a Special IV of 2 or 10, it cannot be Shiny.

In Generations III and later

Generation III saw an overhaul of many aspects of the game, which included the calculation to determine a Pokémon being Shiny. Shininess in these games is determined by a calculation involving the Original Trainer's ID number and secret ID number, as well as the Pokémon's personality value. The exact calculation is:

where the latter two values represent the highest and lowest 16 bits of the 32-bit personality value respectively. More details on this calculation can be found here.

The above formula can result in a number ranging from 0 to 65535. In Generations III to V, if this result is less than 8, then the Pokémon is Shiny; starting in Generation VI, this threshold was increased to 16. For Generations III to V, this gives an overall probability of 8/65536 or 1/8192, exactly the same as in Generation II. For Generations VI and later, the probability is doubled.

Transferring from Generation I Virtual Console games

Pokémon transported to Pokémon Bank from the Virtual Console releases of the Generation I games via Poké Transporter may be Shiny after being transported. Since Version 1.3 of Poké Transporter, this is determined by following the same criteria as for Generation II games, as described above. Prior to Version 1.3, the roles of the Attack and Defense IVs were swapped, meaning that the process did not properly correspond to Generation II.

The same quirks that apply to transferring Pokémon from Generation I to Generation II games also apply.

The Mew that were distributed to the Generation I Virtual Console games have IVs of 15 in every stat, meaning they can never be Shiny.

Generation II

A Shiny Gyarados in the anime

In-game Shiny Pokémon

In Generation II, any Pokémon can be Shiny, but the game includes a red Gyarados that the player must encounter at the Lake of Rage during the course of the story. In Pokémon Crystal, the Odd Egg also has a high chance of hatching a Shiny Pokémon: 50% in Japanese games, and 14% in all other languages. [citation needed]

In the Game Boy mode of Pokémon Gold and Silver, the sprites of both regular and Shiny Pokémon use the same shades of gray. A Shiny Pokémon can still be identified by the stars on its status screen or the animation shown when it comes into battle.

Additionally, in Generation I, if a wild Pokémon transforms again while already transformed, when caught it will be a Ditto with the same IVs as the first Pokémon it transformed into, allowing Ditto's IVs to be manipulated so that it is Shiny in Generation II by having it initially transform into a Pokémon with Shiny IVs.

Quirks

A bug with the way Shininess is handled for Eggs can cause the Shiny status of a Pokémon hatched from an Egg to differ from the Egg hatching animation. This means that a hatched Pokémon may appear to be Shiny during the hatching animation, but actually not be, and vice versa. This happens because an Egg is initially given the OT, Trainer ID and secret ID of the game in which it is generated, and if it is hatched in a different game, the hatched Pokémon will be given the Trainer details of that game's player; the problem originates in the fact that this update does not occur until after the cutscene of the Egg hatching, so while while it may be Shiny for the player who hatched it, it may not be Shiny for the player who obtained the Egg (or vice versa). This also allows Eggs obtained from event distributions (which in Generation III were only distributed in Japan) to hatch a Shiny Pokémon when they would otherwise be non-Shiny Pokémon. This bug was not fixed until Generation VI.

Unown also has an uneven distribution of Shiny probability depending on its form. This is because Unown's form is also determined by its personality value. The exact probability for any given form depends on the player's Trainer ID and Secret ID, but it can have the values 1/5120, 1/6144, 1/9216, 1/10240, or 1/18432.

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, a Shiny Pokémon's coloration is reflected in the overworld if it is used as a walking Pokémon.

Methods of increasing Shiny rates

Generation IV introduced the first ways to increase the chances of finding a Shiny Pokémon.

The Masuda method refers to breeding two Pokémon originating from games of different languages to increase the chances of breeding a Shiny Pokémon. Under these circumstances, the game generates up to five total personality values to attempt to find one that will be Shiny. Foreign language Pokémon obtained via in-game trades, such as the Meister's Foppa and Lt. Surge's Volty, still count as being from the same game, so they do not activate the Masuda method unless traded to a different language. This mechanic is retained in all subsequent games.

The Poké Radar slowly improves the odds of finding a Shiny Pokémon as the player builds a chain. The odds can reach a maximum of 41/8192 (approximately 1/200) for a single patch of grass for a chain of length 40 or higher; since up to four patches of grass can shake, the total odds become approximately 1/50. If the Poké Radar forces a Pokémon to be Shiny, it constructs a semi-random personality value that will fulfill the requirement for the Pokémon to be Shiny.

Quirks

Cute Charm can make it possible for players with certain Trainer ID number and Secret ID combinations to manipulate the chance of Pokémon with specific gender ratios being Shiny to be as high as 21.34% (while making the chance lower for all other players and Pokémon with different gender ratios, while using the Ability). This is due to how Cute Charm forces a wild Pokémon to be a specific gender when it activates, which is accomplished by modifying the Pokémon's personality value to be one of an extremely limited set of values.

The bug from Generation III that can cause a Pokémon's Shiny status to differ from the hatching animation persists. This again allows Eggs obtained from event distributions (which in Generation IV were only distributed in Japan) and the Manaphy Egg to be Shiny after hatching.

Starting in Generation V, Pokémon in the Pokédex will appear Shiny if the first specimen of that Pokémon encountered was Shiny.

Methods of increasing Shiny rates

The Masuda method now generates up to six total personality values instead of five. This remains the case in later games.

Generation V also introduces the Shiny Charm, a Key Item that causes the game to generate up to two extra personality values in an attempt to make a wild or bred Pokémon Shiny. This effect can stack with the Masuda method's effect. This item is also available in all future games.

Quirks

The bug from Generation III that can cause a Pokémon's Shiny status to differ from the hatching animation persists. This again allows Eggs obtained from event distributions to be Shiny after hatching.

Generation VI

In-game Shiny Pokémon

Generation VI slightly changed how Shiny Pokémon are determined to double the default chances that a Pokémon will be Shiny. The basic formula remains the same, but the threshold for a Pokémon to be Shiny is now 16 instead of 8. This results in a base Shiny probability of 16/65536 or 1/4096.

Methods of increasing Shiny rates

The Poké Radar returns for Pokémon X and Y. The exact mechanics of the Poké Radar in these games are not confirmed, but the Poké Radar can still force a Pokémon in a shaking patch to be Shiny.

In X and Y, in the Friend Safari, Shiny Pokémon are more common. The game achieves this by generating up to four extra personality values when checking if a Pokémon will be Shiny. This effect can stack with the Shiny Charm's effect.[2]

Consecutive fishing can increase the odds of finding a Shiny Pokémon as the player builds a chain of reeled-in Pokémon by fishing from the same spot. For every Pokémon added to the chain, the game tries two extra personality values to attempt to make the Pokémon Shiny, up to a chain of 20 Pokémon, at which point the chances reach a maximum of 41/4096 or approximately 1%. This effect can stack with the Shiny Charm's effect.[3]

In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, hidden Pokémon have a chance to be forced to be Shiny. Unlike most other methods that increase the odds of finding a Shiny Pokémon, this does not increase the number of personality values that the game tries, but instead executes a custom algorithm to decide whether to force a Shiny personality value. In brief summary, the chances of forcing a Shiny Pokémon grow steadily from 0% at Search Level 0 to 0.06% at Search Level 100 (only surpassing the natural odds of finding a Shiny Pokémon at Search Level 41), then grows steadily to 0.08% at Search Level 200, after which the rate of growth becomes 0.01% for every 100 Search Levels. Certain factors can increase the odds further by performing the check extra times. There is a random 4% chance it will be performed four extra times; if the player has the Shiny Charm it will be performed two extra times; and if the player is encountering the 50th or 100th Pokémon in a chain of hidden Pokémon, it will be performed five or ten extra times respectively. All of these bonuses stack.[4]

Methods of increasing Shiny rates

Sun and Moon

In the Pokémon Sun and Moon, as well as Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, as Pokémon in SOS Battles continue calling in allies, the chance that they will be Shiny increases. At chain lengths of 11, 21, and 31, the game will check up to four extra personality values to find a Shiny Pokémon (meaning the maximum number of personality values checked will be 13 for a chain of 31 Pokémon or more). In Pokémon Sun and Moon, the chain length resets to 0 after 255, but in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, it does not reset. This effect can stack with the Shiny Charm's effect.[5]

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

In Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Pokémon encountered through the Ultra Warp Ride (excluding Legendary Pokémon and Ultra Beasts) have a chance to be forced to be Shiny. The Shininess of these Pokémon is determined when the player arrives at the Ultra Space Wilds. The probability that a Pokémon encountered this way will be Shiny depends on the rarity of the wormhole and the distance traveled.[6]

Distance (ly)

0 rings

1 ring

2 rings

3 rings

0–999

1%

N/A

N/A

N/A

1000–1499

2%

3%

1500–1999

3%

5%

2000–2499

4%

7%

2500–2999

5%

9%

16%

3000–3499

6%

11%

20%

3500–3999

7%

13%

24%

4000–4499

8%

15%

28%

4500–4999

9%

17%

32%

5000+

10%

19%

36%

Note that 3-ring "blooming" wormholes will always contain Legendary Pokémon (which do not have increased odds of being Shiny), unless all Legendary Pokémon that could be encountered in that particular wormhole have already been caught.

Catch combos affect all Pokémon, so if the player has a catch combo of 31 Pikachu, all Pokémon have a 1 in 314 chance of being shiny. However, the Pokémon the player has a catch combo for will be more common.
With a catch combo of 31 or higher, a Shiny Charm, and a Lure, the highest chance of 1 in 273 can be reached.

Unobtainable Shiny Pokémon

In all generations since Shiny Pokémon debuted, there are a few species that cannot be legitimately obtained Shiny. This can happen if the Pokémon cannot be Shiny in the wild or as an in-game gift (or cannot be obtained this way at all) and has never been distributed as Shiny. However, with the exception of Magearna in its normal form, Cap Pikachu, and PartnerPikachu and Eevee, all of these Pokémon have Shiny variants in their respective games' code.

↑With the exception of Partner Cap Pikachu, which is available in its Shiny form due to a programming error. The model is the same as the regular form as there is not a separate Shiny model for it programmed into the game. The only indicators to show whether or not it is Shiny are the status screen marking and the Shiny battle entry animation.

In the Ekans Hoop Hurl game in the Kids' Club, there are golden Diglett that are worth extra points.

In Stadium 2, there is an option while viewing the list to exclude any non-Shiny Pokémon from the listing (i.e. Group Color Pokémon/Cancel Color Pokémon). This will show Shininess, even if the player is currently viewing a Generation I cartridge in the Lab.

There is a 1/8192 chance of a Shadow Pokémon being Shiny, but when a Shiny Shadow Pokémon is captured it is highly improbable that the Pokémon will remain Shiny. Conversely, when an ordinary Shadow Pokémon is captured, there is still the 1/8192 chance of that Pokémon becoming Shiny when it is sent to the player's party or the Pokémon Storage System. Shininess is retained through purification.

In Pokémon Colosseum, the color of a Shiny Pokémon can differ drastically from the handheld games.

Like in Pokémon Colosseum, the color of a Shiny Pokémon can differ drastically from the handheld games. Shiny Pokémon have a different profile icon next to their health bar than their normally-colored counterparts.

My Pokémon Ranch

Pokémon Battle Revolution

In Pokémon Battle Revolution, Shiny Pokémon have face-sprites which show their Shininess. Random Pokémon in Colosseums can be Shiny, but have the same chance of being Shiny as wild Pokémon. This is due to the RNG, which generates a random PID.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon WiiWare

In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games for WiiWare, Shiny Pokémon can be found in dungeons. Unlike the core series, only 36 different species of Shiny Pokémon are obtainable. The chances of finding one in a dungeon is the same as finding one in the wild in the core series. Unlike Shiny Pokémon in the past however, the Shiny Pokémon found in these games have an added bonus: their Belly stat is 200 as opposed to the 100 of normal Pokémon. A Red Gyarados can also be obtained at Level 30 via Wonder Mail password, as a reference to the one found in the Johto-based games.

Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon

Shiny Celebi

The Shiny Celebi from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky makes an appearance. She is rescued as part of an expedition and subsequently connects with the player. She has a unique animation that plays when entering a dungeon.

Pokémon Rumble series

Pokémon Rumble

In Pokémon Rumble, Shiny Pokémon may rarely appear. They will always tip over when defeated. The chances of their appearance are unconfirmed, although they appear to occur more often than in the core series. Shiny Pokémon are always given a special trait, a blue name in menus, and a star below their picture on the Collection screen. Some Shiny Pokémon can be obtained by the use of passwords.

Pokémon GO

Shiny encounter in Pokémon GO

In Pokémon GO, Shiny Pokémon may be encountered randomly in the wild, from hatching Eggs, by completing Field Research tasks, or by winning Raid Battles. During Community Day events, featured Pokémon have an increased chance of being Shiny in the wild. All Pokémon seen in the overworld appear non-Shiny, but when a player attempts to capture a Pokémon, it may appear as a Shiny Pokémon. Likewise, during a Raid Battle, the Raid Boss always appears non-Shiny during battle, but it may become Shiny during the bonus challenge. Shiny encounters are random for each player, meaning that if two players attempt to catch the same Pokémon, one player may encounter a Shiny Pokémon and the other may not. Shiny Pokémon are represented by a icon. When a Shiny Pokémon is encountered in the wild, the icon appears at the upper left of the Pokémon's CP. When browsing the Pokémon Box, the icon appears at the upper left of its sprite. Upon capturing a Shiny Pokémon in the wild, its name is shown in yellow text instead of white.

Shiny Legendary Pokémon from raids have a 100% capture rate if successfully hit with a Premier Ball. However, this is not the case for other types of Shiny Pokémon encountered in raids nor Shiny Legendary Pokémon encountered outside of raids.

Only the Shiny forms of certain Pokémon have been released, often coinciding with a special event or update. For most evolution families, only the first-stage Pokémon is obtainable as Shiny, including those with baby Pokémon. The only known exceptions are:

Pokémon Duel

There are several figures that are Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Duel. These figures are usually posed identically or near-identically to their regular Pokémon counterparts. A Shiny figure's Data Disk is always identical to the regular version's but a few have different Abilities. A Shiny figure cannot evolve or change form into a non-Shiny figure nor vice-versa. Additionally, a Shiny figure cannot be selected to be made into a Golden or Silver Figure. The following is a list of Shiny figures.

Pokémon Quest

In the TCG

Shiny Pokémon have appeared in the TCG as well, first as Shining Pokémon in Neo Revelation and Neo Destiny, and later as Pokémon in EX Team Rocket Returns - EX Power Keepers. Players can only have one Pokémon per deck. The Stormfront, Platinum, Supreme Victors and Arceus sets include three cards each with alternate coloration artwork and a reverse holo effect, but are not classified as an entirely separate rarity. Unlike Shining Pokémon and Pokémon , these newest alternate coloration cards are not limited by special gameplay and deckbuilding rules, and since the names of the cards are not changed to indicate the alternate coloration, they can be evolved into non-Shiny Stage 1 Pokémon, or, in the case of Shiny evolved Pokémon, from normal Basic Pokémon.

In the Orange Archipelago, certain Pokémon have a different coloration because the climate is different than that of the mainland. For example, a Butterfree, instead of the normal white with black markings, would have gold wings with red spots on them. On Pinkan Island of the Orange Archipelago, all of the Pokémon are colored pink because the Pinkan Berries they eat make them that way.

The first true Shiny Pokémon that appeared was a Noctowl in Fowl Play!. Ash eventually captured it, and, as in the games, sparkles surround it as it comes from its Poké Ball. Several other Shiny Pokémon have appeared later as well, often used to make them stand out more, or be the focus of an episode. The term "Shiny" was first used in Working on a Right Move!.

In the Pocket Monsters HGSS Jō's Big Adventure manga

In the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga

The Red Gyarados makes an appearance in Stop That Strange Sonic Sound!! where Team Rocket plots on catching it by luring it out of hiding using sonic waves while at the same time, Clefairy went fishing for it. The Red Gyarados is darker than any normal-colored Gyarados in this media.

Trivia

In Generation III onwards, it is possible for an Egg to hatch Shiny on one game but not another. This is because Shininess is partially determined by the Original Trainer ID and Secret ID number. Eggs have the ID and SID of the game they were originally bred on, but change to the ID and SID of the hatcher immediately after hatching. It is this change that affects Shininess.

Confusingly, this means that if a player hatches a traded Egg that would have been Shiny on the game it was originally bred on, it will appear Shiny on the hatching screen (since it still has the ID and SID of the original game), and then suddenly no longer be Shiny afterward (once it has obtained the ID and SID of the hatcher's game). Conversely, it is also possible for a newly hatched Egg to not appear Shiny on the hatching screen and then suddenly become Shiny afterward, if the Egg has been traded.

While all (Generation III onward) event Eggs are set to prevent or force Shininess, if a player other than the one who obtained it from the event hatches the Egg, this prevention is bypassed, allowing an event Egg to hatch Shiny. This is the only way to obtain a Shiny Manaphy.

Due to Shininess being determined by IVs in Generation II, several odd quirks arise:

Since gender is also determined by IVs in Generation II, it is impossible to have a Shiny Pokémon with a gender ratio of seven males to one female that is female in those games, as the highest Attack IV a female Pokémon with a gender ratio of seven males to one female can have is 1, while the lowest Attack IV a Shiny Pokémon can have is 2.

Since Unown's letter is also determined by IVs in Generation II, only Unown I and V can be Shiny.

Since Hidden Power is determined by IVs, a Shiny Pokémon's Hidden Power type in Generation II can only be either Grass or Dragon, with a power of either 49 or 69.

As Generation II does not allow two Pokémon to breed if they are likely to be from the same family, two Shiny Pokémon can never breed in Generation II.